Rennecke column: Racing is in Allex's blood

You could call St. Cloud State swimmer Reed Allex an adrenaline junkie, but when you chat with him that's the furthest thing from the truth.

"I don't think I'm an adrenaline junkie," Allex said with a laugh, "but I do love the competition of a good race."

Allex, a sophomore-to-be on the SCSU swimming and diving team, races a 360-cubic-inch winged sprint car in the summer. Racing runs in his family and he and his dad, Jim, took up the hobby in 2012 after buying the car from Jim's brother.

"My dad's side of the family has been racing forever," Allex said. "I always kind of had in interest in it and wanted to try it. When I was 12, my dad bought me my first Go-Kart and I raced that for about six years. That ended up leading into sprint cars."

So why does Allex race sprint cars? The answer is simple: they're the fastest cars on the track.

"They're unlike anything else," he said. "I knew I would be really into it. There was something about that car. I thought they were really cool."

The hobby that Allex has taken up is a serious one, and he's really good at it. He's part of the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Touring Series. He runs all over Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

He's raced at Granite City Speedway in Sauk Rapids, but has been to Brainerd, Duluth, Redwood Falls, Jackson, Willmar and different cities in Iowa and Wisconsin this summer.

As of July 26, he was sitting in sixth place in the series point standings with 2,417.

"When we first got the car, we just ran at Redwood Speedway in Redwood Falls. That was a different division. Last year, we decided to make the switch to the touring series to get tougher competition and to see what we could do with the car," Allex said.

"We've scored a couple of top 10's this year. We're proud of that. We've raced against a strong group of cars every week."

Allex and his dad spend about 20-25 hours a week working on the car in their shop. Allex estimates they've put at least $50,000 into the car since they bought it, which doesn't include any serious repairs.

"There's always something you can do on it," Allex said. "We're always tweaking something or tuning something differently. We want to try new and different things to see if we can get more out of it. You can spend an unlimited amount of time out in the shop."

Allex credits his dad for his performances this summer. Jim, 54, is an instructor in the automotive department at St. Cloud Technical & Community College.

"He's the main guy working on the car," Allex said. "I couldn't do this without him. He's 100 percent fully committed to it. It's nice to have help like that. Plus, it's awesome to spend time with him."

Allex has taken away a little more than $3,000 in earnings this summer from his races. That's just enough to cover fuel costs for his trips around the Upper Midwest. It also will buy a tire or two when he needs one.

While he's not taking money away from his new passion, he wants to keep doing it for as long as he can.

"As long as I'm having fun, I'll keep going," he said. "It's hard to explain, the feeling you get from it. It's a rush, but you have to be 100 percent concentrated on what you're doing the entire time. The smallest lapse in concentration can mess a lot of stuff up. That's part of the challenge. Not many people say they race sprint cars like this."

Allex will most likely swim in the 100 and 200 backstroke events this year and participate in a handful of relays like he did as a freshman for the Huskies. He's spent plenty of time in the pool this summer getting ready for his sophomore season.

The St. Cloud Tech graduate's biggest motivation is to make it to the Division II national meet by the time he's done with his college career. Allex made it to the state meet during his junior and senior years with the Tigers. He took fourth in the 100 backstroke during his senior year at the Class 2A state meet.

"Ever since I started at St. Cloud State, that's been my goal. It's my light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "If I could make it there, it would be incredible."

The graphic design major isn't sure everyone knows about his other passion at St. Cloud State. But the ones who do know have been very supportive of him, including head coach Jeff Hegle.

"They think it's cool," he said. "They always ask how I'm doing with it. It's cool to get that support from them. They know what I'm doing is special to me. They're always asking to come out and see a race. That would be cool if they could. I want to show them what it's all about."

This is the opinion of Times sports writer Andy Rennecke. Contact him at 255-8735 or arennecke@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @AndyRennecke. Join him for a live chat from 2-3 p.m. on Monday at www.sctimes.com.